2 Apr 1946:Appointed to Permanent Commission in the rank of Squadron Leader (retaining
rank current at the time).

[wef 1
Sep 1945 antedated to 1 Jan 1945 on 25 Feb 1947]

1
Aug 1958:Chief of Staff, HQ No 12 (Fighter) Group.

20
Jul 1959:AOC, No 12 Group.

1
Jan 1961:Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operational Requirements).

5
Jun 1963:Deputy Chief of the Air Staff.

xx
xxx 1967:Controller of Aircraft, Ministry of Technology.

The son of Brigadier-General Sir Harold Hartley,
Christopher Hartley did not initially plan to follow in his father's military
footsteps and after Eton attended Balliol College, Oxford as a William's
Exhibitioner and then King's College, Cambridge where he gained a BA Honours
degree in Zoology.He took part in
various Oxford University Expeditions as a zoologist including Sarawak (1932),
Spitzbergen (1933) and Greenland (1937).In
1937, he became an Assistant Master at Eton College an a year later he joined
the RAFVR.With the outbreak of war
in September 1939, he was mobilised along with other reservists and joined No
604 Sqn of the Auxiliary Air Force.

With the end of hostilities, he was offered a
Permanent Commission in the RAF, which he accepted, being commissioned as a
Squadron Leader.

Shortly after retiring from the RAF he became a
Director of Westland Aircraft Ltd until 1983.From 1974 until 1978 he was also Chairman of British Hovercraft
Corporation when he stepped down to Deputy Chairman.

His terms of office in these posts covered
some major decisions over the V-bomber force (particularly its low-level role
after the cancellation of Skybolt missiles) and TSR-2, leading him in the latter
case to criticise the competence of the Ministry of Aviation to manage a major
project.

After a Labour administration came to power
in the autumn of 1964 and signalled their intentions to cancel the supersonic
Harrier, the HS681 STOL transport and TSR-2, Hartley led a team to the United
States to look at alternative types and report to the Minister of Defence (Denis
Healey); and on their recommendations were based the subsequent purchases of
Phantoms and C-130s.

With his service experience of planning
future equipment, Hartley was a natural choice for the secondment post of
Controller of Aircraft at the Ministry of Aviation (which became the Ministry of
Technology) from 1966, serving there until his retirement in 1970 and having an
overview of both civil and military projects. He was particularly involved in
the complex international Concorde programme.

As a consequence of these high-level
contacts, appointments at board- room level followed his retirement in 1970 from
his service career - with FPT Industries, Saunders-Roe Developments, Westland
Engineers, Westland Technologies and Westland Aircraft, and the British
Hovercraft Corporation, of which he was chairman from 1974 to 1978.

Born in 1913, Hartley had his first flying
experience when he joined Oxford University Air Squadron in 1934, and in those
pre-war years he served on three university expeditions, to Sarawak, Spitsbergen
and Greenland. He was tall and strong and at his happiest in out- door pursuits
like fishing, shooting, mountaineering and sailing.

When war came he was a science master at
Eton, where he had been educated as a boy, representing the college at rugby and
rowing, and from where he went up to Balliol as an Exhibitioner. After being
called up for service he initially flew with No 5, 6 and 7 Bombing and Gunnery
Schools, then became an instructor at No 2 SFTS. He then went into night fighter
operations: his first squadron was No 604 (County of Middlesex), before becoming
a flight commander with No 256.

During 1943, at the Flying Instructor Unit at
Ford, he served as fighter controller and then commanding officer. For his part
in the operational trials of the first Ju-88 night fighter to fall into RAF
hands he was awarded the AFC, then in 1945 won the DFC.

His post-war career was determined when he
gained a permanent commission in September 1945, and two attachments to the
Staff College at Bracknell - on No 17 (W) Staff Course and in 1949-50 as a
member of the Directing Staff - were interspersed with his first tour at the Air
Ministry, on intelligence duties.

Hartley achieved his first senior post when
appointed to command RAF Wahn in 2nd TAF in 1951. He then became Deputy Director
of Operations (Guided Weapons) at No 61 Group, attended the Nato Special Weapons
Senior Officers Course and was subsequently appointed Sector Commander, Eastern
Sector. He served as Senior Air Staff Officer at No 12 Group, and from there
went to his first senior Air Ministry appointment - as ACAS (Operational
Requirements) - in June 1961.